claim jumper

for all those that miss claim jumper, they're building one in fremont!

24

we're finally at the point where we've finished watching most of the movies on our netflix queue, and now we can go back to watching tv series dvds. so i am getting the first dvd of the first season of 24!! it seems like everyone seems to think this show is very good, so we'll see if i get hooked! then i'll have 4 more season to catch up on ! yikes!!

i still have yet to watch the first season of lost (but i saw the first half in reruns last summer, but i want to watch the 2nd half!)

good night, good luck (i think it was nominated for an oscar) was sooooo boring. i stopped watching after the first 15 minutes. plus it was all in black and white. i thought walk the line was pretty good though, i never knew johnny cash was that famous, weird!

mall closed on easter

we tried to go to the mall easter sunday, and it was closed! i thought the malls only closed on christmas and thanksgiving?? it was a bummer!

another easy week

well, my team lead is vacationing in hawaii this week, so i'll be spending another week working from home! i haven't gone to the office very much at all this month. i think i'll be able to survive the entire month only getting one tank of gas! crazy. i only drive to/from class. if i didn't have class i think the only times i would leave the house is when i take tofu on walks! the weather is FINALLY starting to clear up. i can't believe we had 20+ straight days of rain. it felt like we were in seattle or something!

anyhoo, we're going to visit la this weekend. i'm a little nervous. the last time i saw the in-laws was when they came to visit for chinese new year parade in feb, and i guess afterwards they told julian that they were hurt that i didn't call them mom and dad. oops. i didn't know i was supposed to do that! is that normal?? i thought they were supposed to ask you to call them that? well in any case, they told him they felt i wasn't accepting of them or something and they felt snubbed. now i feel very weird because of course that was not my intention at all, i'm just clueless i guess?? but should i say something?? i mean, i'll call them mom and dad (it feels very weird to though!), but should i explain why i didn't before?? sigh. maybe i'm just being worried over nothing but i really have no idea what they're thinking or what they think of me. oh well, i guess that's the fun in having in-laws eh?

mark your calendars!

ben & jerry's free cone day on tues april 25th!

week one down, nine more to go

i survived my first week of class! i can already tell that it's going to be a tough quarter. i have class every day mon-thurs. i LIVE for fridays! the class work isn't actually so bad though (hopefully), but it's just a pain to go to class every day after (or before) work. i seriously can not wait until i graduate.

i'm thinking about taking some jewelry making classes in the summer. i'm trying to create more options for the future when/if i decide to quit my day job after having kids. but that's still 2-3 years away =P

one of my friends at work is going to be engaged soon! he has the ring and is going to propose soon. he is already working on the wedding website! it's kind of weird, they even went to a bridal show two months ago. i think his gf is very eager to get married heh, already started the wedding planning before being engaged! anyways, looks like i'll have at least one wedding to go to next year already!

odds and ends

it's been raining like crazy here, urgh, and doesn't look like it'll stop in the near future. SF set a new record, 25/31 days in march were rainy!!

my team lead is now in israel (i didn't end up going despite him asking me two more times if i was SURE i didn't want to go heh) but i have to prepare some material and give a presentation at 7am wed.

class begins this week..i obviously dread it because i had a dream that for one of my classes the assignment was to write a paper by hand using carbon paper! it was the oddest dream in the world.

julian is going to go to alabama again! either the end of this week or early next week. boo.

some more reality shows i'm watching

top chef: from the creators of project runaway. a bunch of aspiring chefs have 2 challenges each week. it's set in san francisco, and each week a guest chef from a well-known san francisco restaurant is brought in. their challenges are kind of ridiculous though, and some of the contestants are very snobby and hate the challenges. for example, one challenge was to cook monk fish for children. another was to use ingredients from a gas station to make a dish. another was to prepare a dish the night before that can will be reheated with a microwave the next day. so the snobby contestants are like...children?? those are not my target audience, i want to be a chef in a fancy restaurant, i'll never have to deal with kids yada yada. and for the microwave challenge, they TOTALLY look down on the microwave, saying how they're top chefs, they don't USE microwaves blah blah. some of them are so stuck up! heh. anyways, it's fun to watch, i like to watch cooking shows but it never seems to inspire me to actually cook. i wish i could learn through osmosis!

nanny 911: hmm...all i gotta say is i really really hope i can control my kids. i'm starting to think i should push back kids even further hehe. one memorable episode had one little girl that refused to wear a diaper, so she would poop everywhere in the house...and if she DID wear a diaper, she would take the poop out of her diaper and show it to her parents. one time, she woke up her mom by wiping her poo on her face! lovely eh??

i've added supernanny to my tivo season pass (i guess i'm trying to scare myself out of having kids haha) and also real housewives of orange county. i haven't seen an episode of either yet, but hopefully they'll be entertaining.

check it out

the modern swan lake is in sf now... March 21 - April 16

would it be too much to watch it again even though i just watched the regular one 2 months ago? julian doesn't really want to see it hehe. he thinks ballets are boring and will make him fall asleep. but do you know what he is basing it on??? a mexican ballet he saw on video in spanish class in 8th grade! sheesh. i should just make him go watch one live!

sf opera is actually having a surprising number of operas this season, the subscription i'm interested in is the Beginner's Guide to Opera with Rigoletto, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, and Don Giovanni.

has anyone seen any good musicals lately?? i think in vegas we're going to try to catch avenue q but i've been so out of it i don't know what's good on broadway now. and the shows coming to sf are not good boo. well, hopefully i can catch a musical in ny! i'll be visiting sharon in july hooray! i can't wait to sweat buckets =P

over the weekend

ok, i guess it's back to posting about things i did over the weekend, not much else to talk about...so! we've been taking advantage of my spring break (no class, no hw) and knocking off the movies on our netflix list! we watched brothers grimm (sucked don't watch it, i fell asleep), longest yard, and kingdom of heaven. yes, they have all been out on dvd for a looong time but we're that behind! longest yard and kingdom of heaven were both ok. the bad thing about netflix is that if you don't send in your movies to be received mon, you won't receive new releases for a loooong time. i've been waiting for walk the line but it's been on "Long Wait" for a few weeks now. sigh. i think it'll be another few weeks before we actually get it, bleh. but smart me caught on that for new releases they send them out on mon even though the dvd comes out on tues! so for movies that i really want to see, i have to mail them out fri or sat. so we'll be getting memoirs of a geisha tomorrow (the day it comes out on dvd). yippee

we also watched inside man, it's a pretty good movie. and jodie foster carries 2 birkins in the movie! oh, sat we went to great america for julian's company picnic again. we only rode top gun and invertigo (my first time). both are so short! great america sucks. they have a new survivor thingie, but it wasn't open yet. and the food was as bad as always. =P

sun we took tofu to a doggie park...we're trying to socialize her more with other dogs. man, she barks sooo much. it's embarassing to take her anywhere because she's so loud! i think we made a little tiny bit of progress. she actually sniffed a dog from behind without barking. but she still barks like mad when a dog is approaching her head on. and she scared this one dog so much that it started to whine..i felt so bad for him! other dogs kind of get mad and chase her around so they run around with tofu barking heh... just have to be careful that other dogs don't get so mad that they bite tofu! or that tofu doesn't bite them! it's kind of scary! at least the park we went to had a separate area for small dogs and big dogs, but we're going to try to take her there every week so she can get used to it. oy! it's so draining!

oh yes, and today was my lucky day! i was able to get through on the french laundry reservation line after only 3 minutes so i could make a reservation for dinner may 27th (memorial day weekend!) i've tried 2 times before last year, and i couldn't get through for 30-45 minutes both times! and by the time i did get through, of course there were no more reservations left. so anyhoo, julian and i had our phones armed and ready at 10am and lucky me was able to get through! hooray! now i hope the food is as good as everyone says!

for all those speeders out there

while driving to work today, i saw a car stopped by a "cop". Now this was no ordinary cop...the car he was trying looked like an ordinary car. It was a Ford Taurus, I saw it from the back first and I saw that it's tail lights were flashing (like a cop car). and as I drove by, saw that he had his police lights in the front. There were no lights on the top of the car. It totally looked like a normal car! And this "cop" was wearing a plaid short sleeved shirt and jeans! But he was wearing his badge around his neck. I could see it from 2 lanes over. Anyhoo, cops are getting sneakier! If you were just driving around I don't think you would notice that it was a cop car until it's too late. So the moral of the story is, don't speed (too much) =P I speed, but try not to speed too much over the limit! hehe

i'm officially on spring break! woohoo! i get a 1.5 week break from school =P doesn't seem like much but it'll be a relief. 3 more months and then i'll be freeeee

let's see, i don't really have that much to blog about. yesterday i moved to my new office, we're in a new building now, the one that the gym is in. i now don't really have any excuse as to why i shouldn't go. before it would be, it's across the street, tooooo far. now it's right downstairs, i walk by going to and from my office but i'll only be going 2 or 3 times a week to the office so we'll see. anyways, we've been trying to walk tofu every morning and every evening, so that's my new exercise. it's better than what i used to do (nothing) so it's a start.

oh. over the weekend the weather was sooooo beautiful. we went hiking at mt tam near sausalito. the view is gooooorgeous. and i wouldn't really call it hiking, it was more like walking up little hills to see the view. it's really pretty. and the weather was so nice on sat. and since we were hanging out with julian's friends, the talk with the gf always ends up being about birkins haha. so hmmhmm, i guess that's what i'm saving up for! even though i didn't really like them to begin with i've seen sooo many pictures of people carrying them now and they're growing on me. it's still a very classic bag, but if you get it in a nice bright color it makes it less boring i think. i've recently joined a purse forum and it's adding fuel to the fire! i see countless pictures of pretty bags and get soooo tempted. and man, there are some craaaazy purse people, if you guys think i'm addicted, you should see these people! i need to win the lotto i think =P

vacation

i think the only thing that keeps me sane is having something to look forward to vacation-wise. julian went to alabama (again!) last night. he went last month too, but both times it's a short trip, only 1-2 days. with all this travel over there, he's now a silver medallion member on delta. and this trip he got to go first class! (but according to him, delta airplanes really suck and first class is not that great) he now has a lot of delta miles, so we're thinking of what to do with them! we can get two tickets to mexico/carribbean, or one ticket to europe. we're trying to keep the vacations this year low budget since we want to go to greece next summer.

so far the only thing we have confirmed is LA july 4th weekend for a wedding, and then drive to vegas for 3-4 days. so if any of you guys want to join us, we'll be there july 4-7th. and most likely staying at mandalay bay (because julian wants to try the cool pool...or something)

julian's parents are going to china for a week in august and they **REALLY** want us to go. but neither of us are too keen on going. i feel that we (or at least julian) should go, but i dunno, he doesn't want to heh. but can't really say that to his parents right? so yeah, i dunno what's going to happen with that, julian doesn't want to spend money on a vacation he doesn't want to go on =P

next possibility is going to switzerland in nov, i think airfare is pretty cheap then, and we'll have free lodging, so that would be cool. we want to use the delta miles before delta goes kaput, since they've filed for bankruptcy. But does that mean anything though?? didn't united file for bankruptcy too? anyways, the problem with using frequent flier miles is that they're so restrictive and limited, it kind of sucks. if we don't end up using the delta miles to go to switzerland, i would want to use them to go to mexico/carribbean in dec maybe. we were thinking of cancun, but after the hurricane last year, i think it's still kind of a mess there. so maybe the carribbean. oh, i also have a free united flight! which i think i want to use to visit sharon in ny. gotta use all the free flights before they go kaput!

all these possible trips, who knows if any will come to fruition, but having them to think about gives me something to take my mind off work and school!! =P at least we'll be going to vegas for sure...haven't been in so long! very excited to go! yippeee

crunchtime

it's the end of the quarter and i'm feeling the squeeeeze on my time. i have lots of things to work on, and i'm really looking forward to my "spring break". it'll be so nice to not have to go to class after work or wake up hecka early, but that will only last a week. i really hope i can survive one more quarter. just need to survive to june. hope.i.can.make.it. ugh. this week is the last week of class and next week is finals week. and this weekend julian's friends are coming to visit, so the pressure is on to finish a lot of my stuff during the week, so i'll be working on my paper about valuing inventory. wheeeeeeeeeeeeee at least lorentz and i finished our project in 4 hours yesterday! hehe. we created a de-crypter for yahoo messenger archive chats. sounds fun hunh? anyhoo, tofu still has some issues that need to be worked on so we've enlisted the services of a trainer for private lessons. our first one is tomorrow and we'll see how the assessment goes =P

tofu actually came home last night...when i called, the lady was like, oh tofu is doing fine, she is ready to come now. i was like, oh really? she doesn't have to stay overnight? and then she replied in a really confused, why would she ask that question tone, no you can come pick her up before 6. i was like...hmm...ok. so i drive over, and the receptionist was like, i thought she was going to stay overnight! i was like, yeah i thought that too but when i called someone told me i could pick her up. and then she gave me this whole spiel about how they usually stay overnight and yada yada like it was *I* who asked if i could pick her up earlier, like i'm some crazy overprotective dog owner! sheesh! anyhow, so she let me take her home and tofu was sooo out of it. still heavily drugged heh. i was kind of glad she could come home cause at the vet's, no one is watching the dogs, they just leave them in the cages. so i felt better that tofu could rest someplace she was familiar with. anyways, this morning, she seems back to her normal self. so that's good. the stitches on her tummy are sooo small. so interesting!

oh yeah, i talked with my manager's manager (she's actually here for a week from tucson), and she's ok with me working from my home, but my manager kind of wants to retain the office space, so she would prefer if i worked from home a few days out of the week and not the whole time, for the short term. and see about the long term. so that's ok with me. so i think most likely i'll work from home MWF. yippee. the only downside is that i won't be reimbursed for stuff like those that are working full time from home, like their DSL, phone, printer, etc etc. but it's ok, we'll be paying for that anyways, and i'm saving on gas =P

tofu's getting spayed today! we dropped her off at 8:30 this morning and she has to stay the night with the vet =( i have to call after 4:30pm today to see how it went. i really hope it goes ok! it'll be so weird to not have her at home tonight. eek, so anxious. 4+ hours to go! i can't imagine how i'll be with my kids. =P

working from home

now that i've started considering it, i can't stop thinking about how nice it would be! i talked with my teammate last week, but he said that someone who is planning on retiring this year already talked with him, and so they are going to switch places. so on mon i told my manager that i would like be a work at home employee, she was like...ok, i'll have to talk with my manager and i'll get back to you. so now it's thursday and she hasn't said anything yet. hmm. she was like, "why do you want to work from home?" and i gave this realllly lame answer of because i want to have kids soon. well, i thought it was lame because we actually have someone that is pregnant right now and i don't think she's requested working from home. and i don't really plan on having kids any time soon, but i thought it was a better excuse than saying i wanted to stay home with the dog. =P so i guess we'll see. all the coworkers that i eat lunch with are leaving the company, so i don't really have that much of an incentive of going to work, but i think i'll probably go in at least once every 1-2 weeks. i think if i end up working from home, i'm going to be sooo lazy. i'll never have to change out of my PJs, do my hair, change into my contacts, whoa! that means i wouldn't need to buy new clothes or shoes if i never go out right?? i'm sure julian thinks so haha

death to my career?

sooo, our move to the building across the street was supposed to be in may, but now it's been pushed up to march 21st. and i don't know if you guys remember, but 7 people were asked to work from home permanently, not really asked, forced. so one guy on my team has to work from home and he seems very unhappy about it. i'm seriously considering switching with him. should i?? i think one of the reasons i wasn't chosen to work from home is because i'm already kind of quiet, i don't really socialize with anyone and not really outspoken, so they want to maximize my exposure to everyone else. i think if i started working from home, it'll be even worse. and i guess in my yearly goals i always say i want to take some leadership roles yada yada (even though i don't necessarily want to, but i really have no idea what else to write?!) so of course if i want to go on that path, it's much better to stay visible.
so i dunno, i've been thinking a lot about what i want do in the future when we're starting to have kids. being at home will be very nice. i personally am not that career-driven, i just want to take home the money! so i think i'm going to talk with my teammate this afternoon and see how it goes. and if i work from home, we won't need a 2nd dog! =P everyone seemed to think it was a crazy idea, so we kind of nixed it hehe. but i found this PERFECT craigslist ad where someone wanted to sell their 1yr male maltese who was already neutered, had shots, mostly potty trained, that would have been perfect! oh well, i think one dog is plenty =P

crazy??

would it be crazy to get another dog??? julian and i are seriously considering getting a companion for tofu, but i dunno, it'll be even more work and more money. dogs are expensive! so i dunno, we're still thinking about it, but check out this cuuuuuute yorkie! sooooo cute. i'm not sure if we would get another maltese or a different breed. hmm. if tofu has someone to play with i won't feel as bad leaving her alone as much. she still gets really anxious when we leave her alone, still not used to it after 3 months or so!

chinese new year parade

so the last weekend julian's parents came up and we went to the chinese new year parade in sf. it was not that great, i wouldn't recommend going to see it. i had to stand on the window of neiman marcus (there's a small ledge) to watch, my feet hurt after a while! it was also kinda weird, cause it seemed like they invited the whole world to participate in the parade, lots of bands, albertson's, ktvu, waste management....?? i guess they were sponsors, but anyways, guess they needed lots of people to make the parade 3 hours long! julian and i actually took a coffee break (there's now a coffee bean near union square, it's sooo cool! their ice blended is sooo much better than starbucks frappucino!) and when we came back it was just in time to see miss chinatown. we were too far away to see if she was actually pretty though. but that was the only float i really wanted to see =P

i think i'm getting "senioritis". it seems like my heaviest workload is going to be in the last 2 quarters!! ugh! i could spread it out and take a class in summer, but i kinda just want to get it over with so i can be done with it! i REALLY wanted to go to greece after i graduated in june, but i did some research and it's pretty expensive =/ so i think it's going to have to be postponed until next year, cause this year is recuperating from last year where we spent tons of money on house, wedding, and honeymoon. sigh. we *might* go to switzerland in nov if it's cheap to visit one of julian's friend who is working there.

oooh, and my team lead asked if i wanted to go to israel at the end of march/april timeframe, but i dunno, it seems kind of dangerous. we're working on a new project with a team in haifa, so a bunch of team leads actually went in jan, and they said that there an explosion that was kind of close by! and my team lead was like "but it wasn't a big deal or anything.." heh so i dunno, we'll see. julian doesn't think i should go =P my team lead would probably go, but i don't really need to go, he just thinks that it would be good experience.